Technical Field
The present invention relates to a reusable ink cartridge for an inkjet printer, and more particularly, to a reusable ink cartridge for an inkjet printer, the reusable ink cartridge having a separate refilling port at a top surface of a main body housing where ink is stored and having a port cover for opening and closing the refilling port such that an individual user conveniently refills ink through the refilling port without having to use a separate working tool or a specialized company for refilling ink, having a display window for observing, with naked eyes from the outside, an ink storage amount in the main body housing and an ink refilling amount such that the individual user may easily determine a time for refilling ink and refills a suitable amount of ink while refilling the ink by preventing over-filling or under-filling of the ink, and having a refill bag formed of a ductile material inside the main body housing and storing ink therein such that even if the ink storage amount is reduced based on ink usage, a vacuum pressure is prevented from being generated inside the refill bag via narrowing deformation thereby preventing an unstable state of ink supply and discharge caused by the vacuum pressure and smoothly and stably supplying and discharging ink from an ink ejecting unit.
Background Art
Generally, an ink cartridge used in an inkjet printer includes an ink container in which ink is stored and a head unit through which ink is ejected, and printing is performed as ink is ejected onto a paper according to a print command of the inkjet printer.
Since the ink cartridge used as such is disposable, the ink cartridge is replaced when ink stored therein is all consumed, but recently, for resource recycling and environmental pollution prevention, the ink cartridge, in which the ink is all consumed, is not discarded and is reused by refilling ink. Since it is cheaper to refill ink than replacing the ink cartridge, refilling of ink is advantageous economically, and in particular, utilization and importance of the refilling of ink is gradually increasing since an environment is protected and resources are not wasted.
A method of refilling ink to reuse the ink cartridge is varied since a structure of the ink cartridge is various based on a manufacture company and a product model of the inkjet printer, and a most frequently used method is using a syringe. In other words, a certain amount of ink is sucked into the syringe while a needle of the syringe is dipped in ink in a storage container, and then needle is inserted into the ink cartridge to discharge, from the syringe, and inject the sucked ink into the ink cartridge.
However, such a method of using the syringe is inconvenient since ink is sucked into the syringe by dipping the needle in the storage container and then injected by inserting the needle into a hole of the ink cartridge, and moreover, while performing the method, ink may drop or spill and stain the periphery.
Also, specialized companies for refilling ink in the ink cartridge have been emerged recently, and such specialized companies make a separate ink refill hole in the ink cartridge to refill ink and then block the separate ink refill hole by using a stopper to reuse the ink cartridge.
In this case as well, ink is refilled by using equipment of the specialized companies, and thus it is very difficult for an individual user to easily refill ink.